The Clean Energy Australia Report has been released by the Clean Energy Council showing facts and figures from 2012. The report shows that a record 13.14% of Australia’s power needs came from renewable sources last year. This is equivalent to renewables powering 4 million Australian homes.

Mr David Green, Chief Executive of the Clean Energy Council said, “The clean energy industry contributed $4.2 billion in investment and approximately 24,300 jobs to the Australian economy in 2012. The cost of fossil fuels such as gas has been going up, while clean energy has been getting cheaper – fast. Recently the level of power generation from coal has been declining. Earlier this year the millionth solar power system was installed, while last year was a record one for Australia’s wind power businesses, with the country’s 62 wind farms powering the equivalent of more than one million homes for the first time. These milestones clearly show the progress towards cleaner sources of power.”

With rapidly rising power bills, it came as no surprise that most households (around 90% of them) attempted to lower their consumption rates by using more energy efficient appliances, being more energy aware as well as installing a solar energy system. Small scale solar power systems are already making a significant impact on our energy mix supplying around 8% of energy in 2012. Large scale solar power is becoming a more financially viable option. In 2012, it supplied 0.147% and we expect that figure to grow rapidly.

So, with record numbers of solar systems installed, wind farms connected and overall record numbers of power produced by renewable energies which are cheaper than dirtier sources…why do our power bills continue to rise so much?

The report shows that support for solar power systems and large scale renewables only accounted for 8% of electricity prices while electricity network costs accounted for 40%. Once again, it all comes back to ‘poles and wiring’ and the gold-plating of infrastructure.

While the results and figures in the report were altogether great, no one can be certain what the future holds. Future growth can depend on having better and stronger Government policies in place. However, with this report in mind, Australia is on track to meet its 2020 Renewable Energy Target.

Clean Energy Council Chair, Michael Fraser said, “We recognise that there are many challenges we will need to meet in the decades to come. But this is a rapidly maturing industry filled with innovative thinkers who are constantly looking for ways to overcome these challenges and do things better.”